Louisville Slugged: Bat drop eight vs. RailRiders

LOUISVILLE, KY (July 27­, 2019) - For a second straight day, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders' bats were held in check by the Louisville Bats, falling 8-1 on Saturday evening. Louisville took an early lead and added four runs mid-way through on three uncharacteristic errors by the RailRiders.

Playing as the Mashers to honor their local bourbon culture, at times the Louisville offense looked every bit the part of their namesake. The Bats homered twice more against the RailRiders Saturday night and have homered 15 times in five games against the RailRiders this season. In the 100 games against all other teams in the International League this season, the SWB pitching staff has allowed just 111 homers and has been one of the best in the league at negating home runs.

It was two runs in the first inning, another in the second inning for the Bats as they creeped out to a 3-0 lead off RailRiders starting pitcher Daniel Camarena. The score remained the same until the bottom of the fifth inning when Louisville put a big wedge between themselves and the RailRiders using a four-run frame to make it a 7-0 advantage. They added a run in the sixth inning to extend the lead to 8-0 which was all the offense they needed for the victory.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre needed just one arm out of its bullpen, thanks to a dominating performance by Brady Lail. He entered out of the bullpen with two runners aboard and no outs in the sixth inning and retired the final nine men in order including four strikeouts to keep the Louisville offense at-bay.
 
The offensive highlights from the RailRiders came in the seventh inning which featured a pair of walks, a single by Mike Ford (2-for-5) and an RBI double by Thairo Estrada (3-for-4, 2 2B, RBI, BB) to plate the lone run of the game to cut the deficit to 8-1. SWB fell Saturday night despite 10 hits as a result of leaving 11 men on base.
 
The RailRiders and Bats conclude their three-game series Sunday afternoon with a 2:00 p.m. first pitch at Louisville Slugger Field. SWB sends RHP Chance Adams (4-2, 4.26) to the mound against Louisville's RHP Jesús Reyes (0-4, 5.66) as the Bats aim for the sweep with a bullpen day. Pregame coverage with Adam Marco and Adam Giardino begins at 6:00 p.m. on the RailRiders Radio Network.